What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software?

Products these days have become more advanced. And with great advancement, comes great complexities. That is where product lifecycle management software come into play.

A product lifecycle management software manages data during the whole development lifecycle of a product. It helps in various stages of the lifecycle like its inception, growth, maturity, and decline. Organisations use PLM software to increase productivity, improve quality, enhance creativity, and market the product.

Top 5 Product Lifecycle Management Software to Improve Product Quality

• SoftExpert
• Vision PLM
• Aras PLM
• Arena
• Infor Optiva

We have made your software buying decision easier by listing down the top five product lifecycle management software you should consider for your organisation.

• SoftExpert

This SoftExpert software is used for planning, managing, and executing your project and new business initiatives. This product lifecycle management software helps companies complete their projects and deliverables on-time and enables team members to meet deadlines. In short, SoftExpert specialises in resource utilization and deliverable completion.

Key Features of SoftExpert Product Lifecycle Management Software:

• Built-in Gantt: This has a built-in GANTT chart functionality which is used for managing project schedules, project costs, and resources.
• Efficient Repository: SoftExpert has a single repository for all the information regarding every initiatives, processes and evaluations.
• Task Manager: You can manage your tasks within a single platform, as there is a centralized task manager. You can also send or receive alerts and notifications for the tasks with deadlines.
• Status Reports: With the help of this product development software, you can get straightforward status reports which will let you assess different factors of your project. Detailed visualization of attributes contributing to the growth of the product can be tracked with this product lifecycle management software.
• Customizable Dashboard: With information that is automatically updated, a customizable dashboard is quite helpful in organising your work processes. It has customisable bars including portfolio, quality, KPIs, costs and risks.

• Vision PLM

Vision is a fashion PLM which is used for efficient product development and supply chain management. It is a flexible and scalable product lifecycle management software. Vision is specifically developed for fashion retailers, manufacturers and brands of all sizes.

If you want to streamline processes and integrate functions, Vision can be used to do so. From product designing to development, you can improve control and coordination between different departments using Vision PLM software.

Key Features of Vision PLM Software:

• Range Planning: A visual range hierarchy provides an intuitive list of range planning and budget related information. This includes styles and options at different levels, such as, season- and department-wise data with its target price point and margins.
• Design Integration: With Vision PLM, you can improve the amount of creativity by reducing other tasks that doesn’t involve creativity from a designer’s schedule. You will be able to view key information at the earliest stage, which would accelerate the rate of product development.
• Material Management: With this PLM tool, you can initiate the process of material development and sourcing. Inform material suppliers at an early stage to give them a better visibility about your requirements. Even get early warning notifications of potential issues across various styles.
• Product Development: With shared list of priority tasks, you can accelerate the process of product development. Factors like hit rate and delivery time in KPI reports can help you set supplier benchmarking.
• Critical Path Management: Updated and pending tasks are completed automatically. Prioritise tasks by colour coding them in to-do lists for individual and teams.

• Aras PLM

With Aras, you can transform your company’s business processes as it is a customizable and upgradeable platform that allows customers to digitally transform as well as adapt to these changes. Aras product lifecycle management software specialises in handling complex products as well.

Key Features of Aras PLM Software:

• Documentation: Since a product lifecycle contains a variety of vital documents with important information, it is essential to store them in a systematic manner. You can manage all the documents for your processes at one platform with Aras product lifecycle management software.
• Bill Management: Bill of Material (BOM) is not applicable just across mechanical and electrical disciplines but also across the extended supply chain. With Aras PLM tool, you can manage your BOM from a variety of sources. Create and maintain structured BOM for every stage of the product lifecycle.
• Change Management: With Aras, you can manage complex change processes and communicate them across different groups in the organisation. You will be able to manage all change requests, plans and orders in your product. Get flexible effectively at a large scale and improve your ECO cycle times.
• Compliance Management: Ensure quality in your product with the help of compliance management. You can create quality document with critical data including Design/Process Failure Modes Effects Analyses (DFMEA/PFMEA), Process Control Plans (PCP) and Process Flow Diagrams (PFD).
• Component Engineering: You can get control on your component processes with component engineering. It simplifies electronic component sourcing and selection to a massive extend. You can have complete access to the current technical data from every leading manufacturer around the world.

• Arena

Arena speeds up your product development lifecycle by combining product lifecycle (PLM) and quality management (QMS). It allows every employee to work together on both product design and manufacturing processes.

Key Features of Arena PLM Tool:

• Supply Chain Alignment: This product lifecycle management software works no matter the size of your organisation. You have a platform that keeps your entire supply chain team on the same page with ease and security.
• Flexible Collaboration: With Arena PLM, you can reduce your overall cost, inventory, and requirements by successfully collaborating with people across your business. Trusted partners can also participate in the quality processes as approving authorities.
• Document Management: There is one single repository for managing all your documents. It can make your searching process easier. This system makes your data traceable by giving you a complete history of changes made and approval done in your documents.
• Enterprise Integration: Arena’s application programming interface (API) helps in the process of new product introduction (NPI) by simplifying integration. (e.g., ERP, CAD, CRM). You can manage the entire company’s data by enterprise integration as it has Cloud Single Sign On (SSO).
• Demand Analysis: With Arena’s demand analysis functionality, you can reduce your costs. You have options to use tools like the component demand aggregation calculator, volume discount assessment tool and time-based material demand analysis capabilities.

• Infor Optiva

Infor Optiva is a cloud-based PLM solution designed especially for manufacturers of items such as chemical, food and beverage.

Key Features of Infor Optiva:

• Collaborative Project Management: Because of Infor Optiva’s integrated stage gate methodology, collaborating with your fellow team members has become much easier. The Cloud Suite PLM module in this PLM tool gives a unified view of all the processes and products in the organization.
• Change Management: You can deploy any change in the business by using its cloud technology. With Infor Optiva, you can develop and launch new products faster with the help of its improved formula optimization.
• Cost Optimization: You can successfully optimise the what-if scenarios in your business to evaluate all the risks and options lying ahead. Achieve optimum optimization of formulas and reduce the extra cost with this software. You can also use its integration capabilities in integration with ERP systems to have detailed insights about the costs.
• Compliance Regulation: This software has regulatory compliance built into it for different factors. It also has a rule-based compliance automation system which helps keep everything in check.

These solutions are ideal for any thriving business, which is planning for market expansion or new product launch. You can have a look at other product lifecycle management software and buy them too.